We feel like we have gotten pretty settled down here in good ole' Fort Carson, Colorado. Everything is unpacked, the house got new carpet, new paint, and is decorated. We are getting used our new daily schedules and can get around town without using a GPS now! Here are some before and after pictures of our new home.
Master bedroom / guest bedroom
Living Room
The scenery here is BEAUTIFUL. It is rocky and mountainous like Utah was, but with more reds and greens. Now that it is spring time all of what was yellow dead grass is starting to turn green again and adding more and more picturesqueness every day. We visited Garden of the Gods, which is a grouping of red rock formations only about a half hour drive from where we live.
View from the Visitior's Center
We have gone up into the mountains, which is also about a 30 minute drive away, almost every weekend. There are different trails you can take that wind their way up the canyon so it's been new scenery every time we have gone. A guy Tyler went to flight school with also moved to Fort Carson, and he and his dog Ruby stayed with us for a couple of weeks while he looked for a house. We took the dog on our hike last weekend while her owner was back home for a friend's wedding.
She had so much fun running around and smelling things she slept the whole ride home!
Two of Rachel's siblings, Bennett and Camille, drive from Provo to visit us during Memorial Day weekend. One of our friends told us about a really nice place to go hiking, so we took them there. It was up in the mountains and the drive there was so amazing. Tyler said it reminded him of Switzerland, the way the rolling green hills with small farm houses with animals grazing in the fields was in the foreground of a range of Snow capped mountains. We weren't able to get good pictures from the car though. You will just have to come visit to see what it looks like!
It was a short hike from a parking area to a picturesque mountain pool.
It got pretty steep at times!
We hiked a little ways further down a canyon and stopped for lunch where the way got impassable due to large boulders causing big drop offs.
We are glad the temple is only an hour away now instead of the four it was while we were living in Alabama. We are taking advantage of our proximity to it as well as our dwindling days of not needing a baby sitter and have gone twice in the month and a half we have been here.
We like to stop and eat at Cafe Rio, a Mexican restaurant we enjoyed back in Provo, after we go to the temple. It is only a 5 minute drive away so it is a perfect treat to have before the drive home. A Chick-fil-A opened next door to the Cafe Rio recently, and the cow was out side waving to cars driving by. Tyler couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. A lady asked if Rachel wanted to be in the picture too, to which she replied "No thanks, I already feel like a cow." (Although she WAS wearing black and white, she looked beautiful as always -- certainly not like a cow.) Bystanders, however, were utterly tickled at her comment.
We sure are enjoying our life here in Colorado and are looking forward to welcoming our baby boy into our family in a few more months!
